Mark

text: Matt Alt, graphics: Robert Duban

September 2004

Updated: 10.25.04

Mark was yet another "bottom feeder" company that
occupied the lowest rungs of the toy industry in
1970's Japan. Similar to
Seven,
and
Victora,
the company appears to have been dedicated exclusively to providing
the world with cheap renditions of other firms'
licenses. Mark sold its toys under a variety of
none-too-imaginative brand names, including "Super Gokin," "Pocket Gokin," and "Silver Gokin."
Unlike Seven and Victora, which were spin-offs of Takara and
Popy,
respectively, Mark does not appear to
have been affiliated with any single larger
company. The Mark logo has thus far been sighted on the
packaging of Gakken,
Clover, and
Takatoku toys, but the firm
appears to have had the closest relationship with the latter company.
Mark's logo appears on the boxes of many of Takatoku's "Mini Gokin" toys,
and Mark produced its own low-end renditions of many of Takatoku's
character licenses, such as X-Bomber, Yattodetaman, and Ippatsuman.
The Takatoku connection doesn't end there. In another
apparent cross-over, Mark's "Battle Sigma" and "Battle
X" toys appear to have been created from the same
molds as used for Takatoku's "V V" boxed set of
Dorvack Calibur toys. In addition, Mark's "Zectron"
toys (sold as "Convertors" in the United States) are scaled-down versions of toys from Takatoku's "Beetras" series.
Mark also participated in a handful of co-productions with Clover,
including several Gundam soft vinyl toys and a series of "Cho Pura Gattai"
("Super Plastic Combination") toys from the Daiojya series.
While the vast majority of Mark's toys are
unremarkable at best, there is a single exception: the
"Super Gokin" God Mazinga. God Mazinga (4/15/84-9/30/84) was an
ill-fated, short-lived sequel to the massively popular
Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger television shows. Mark's otherwise
entirely forgettable God Mazinger remains the only known diecast
rendition of the character. As such, its occasional appearance in
vintage shops or online auctions is enough to incite a feeding frenzy
among die-hard diecast robot toy fanatics. The God Mazinger's package
also features a phrase cribbed word for word from Takatoku's far more
successful
Macross, Orguss, and Dorvack toys:
"Super real die-cast - plastic model and high technology," a boast
amusingly at odds with the humble toy itself.
Stoking the passions of collectors even further, there
are also rumors that Mark also produced a "Jumbo"
polyethylene version of the character as well.
The existence of this large-scale toy has yet to be
confirmed.
In addition to Mark's various character toy outings, the company also produced a number of
non-character toys as well. These include a series of transforming "Gokin Robo" toys, such as this
"Walkman Robo" toy.